Fitness For Freedom Tips

288: How to Get Out of Your Exercise Funk 0

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Jul 26, 2017

Now-What-Sheri - A few years ago I trained for climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. I was 49 and successful! A big bucket list check mark. Since then my exercise habits have gone downhill, become sporadic and sometimes nonexistent. I just can’t seem to find that motivation. I expected it for a few months after achieving my goal, but it’s now going on for a few years. Any suggestions for getting out of this exercise funk?

Starting my Journey - Right now I’m definitely not in shape to be doing much exercise - I was wondering if yoga is a good starting point for me. Does yoga have any other benefit for you than your flexibility? Should I look elsewhere to start getting fit?

Sean - There was a period of time where I was really sick so I stopped exercising and I lost some of my progress. I think I’ve more or less got back to where I was, but was it a mistake to completely stop exercising while I was ill?

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287: When is Far, Far Enough? 0

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Jul 24, 2017

I know a lot of you listening right now are unemotionally and objectively stepping back and thinking, who is this crazy guy and why on earth would he want to do so much running, but we all have our ‘running’ activities. For some people it might be an unhealthy obsession with getting a heavier and heavier bench press or deadlift to the point of chronic ‘on-again off-again’ injuries. For some people it might be an overly aggressive calculation of calories in and calories out, I think we’ve all witnessed and possibly been this person that meticulously measures their food, tracks very specifically the amount of calories they burn and weighs themselves every day, possibly multiple times a day. To stretch this a little bit further what about the person who works for 10,12 and possibly 14 or more hours a day on a consistent basis, because there are always things to get done, or what about the person who obsessively watches, just one more episode of a T.V show, 3 or 4 times an evening and sometimes over entire weekends where it consumes their entire lives.

As I go through these examples, it’s probably easy for you to unemotionally and objectively step back and say people that fall into one of those categories are imbalanced, until I got to the example that in some way applied to you and even if none of those examples did, there’s a good chance you spend more time than you should doing a single activity.

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286: Is There a Way to Prevent Back Pain? 0

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Jul 19, 2017

Soda Blues - I’m trying to cut back on pop but water just doesn’t taste very good. I’ve even tries flavoured water and it’s pretty bland. I want to get better but the options don’t seem to taste as good. What should I do?

Inconsistent and Annoyed - My exercise habits are terrible. I’ll have lots of motivation for a little while and then I’ll lose it again, so I never make any real progress. I need a more manageable way to exercise that will also make me WANT to exercise.

Ow My Back - I very easily get low back pain, it seems to happen a lot. Is there a way that I can prevent - not reduce - back pain?

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285: Using Fitness to Build Mental Toughness 0

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Jul 17, 2017

I recently returned from the Perform Better Summit in Providence Rhode Island. There were lots of great speakers there and I now have several new tools to put in my tool belt. My best guess is the next 3 or 4 Monday episodes I will devote an entire show to one or two main concepts that I think will be the most relevant for you, starting with this one about mental toughness presented by John Brookfield.

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The Hand Plank for Mental Toughness

The Crab Walk

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284: What should you NOT eat before or after an exercise? 0

Jul 12, 2017

Comparative - I have a habit of comparing myself to other people in the gym which tends to make me feel bad, because I’m not as good as them. How do I get myself in the mindset that I don’t need to pay attention to them, if that’s all I can see when I go in?

Mental Mystery - How does exercise make you feel better? I’ve heard it helps with depression, how does that work?

Snack Fitness - What should you NOT eat before or after an exercise? I feel like I need to eat something before working out but I don’t want to eat the wrong thing.

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283: How to Become a Problem Solver 0

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Jul 10, 2017

A few years ago one of my clients asked me to join her facebook group. It was a group of people from all over the world that either had some sort of medical condition or had overcome some sort of adversity in their lives and they were trying to navigate their new lives now that things were different for them. She asked me if I could design some exercise programs that some of the people in the group could do, she thought the exercises might be helpful for many of them, I agreed because consistent exercise is the one thing that can help almost any medical condition, even fix or cure the condition directly, it can still help people become more functional and help them mentally as well. So I wrote a few very basic and short exercise programs that didn’t require any equipment, with relatively easy exercises like arm circles, wall push-ups and practicing standing up out of a chair, things that were probably closer to activities of daily living more so than what most people would consider exercise. I posted them in the group forum and went on with my day. The next day when I checked in to see if anyone had any questions or needed guidance there were about 30 comments that were all some form of this:

I can’t do this exercise routine, because I can’t do this one exercise
This exercise hurts my shoulder, hip, foot, fingers or some other body part
Are there any easier exercises than this, these are too hard?

I understand exercise can be challenging and that this group of people would need something especially gentle, so I gave them a program, that was short, basic and basically the same as a program I would give and have given clients in their 80’s and 90’s.

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282: Can I Exercise During My 2 Hour Commute? 0

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Jul 5, 2017

Magically Nutritious - I was just wondering about nutritional labels, you’ve done some videos on them and mention a lot of minerals and vitamins - what are the most important ones to be looking out for?

JR - I spend about 1.5 to 2 hours a day driving for my daily commute. Do you have any suggestions, besides listening to your podcast, to use this time productively towards fitness goals? Maybe some exercises or stretches that can be safely done while driving or some common ergonomic problems that I should try to avoid?

Ready for Greatness - I’m preparing to run my first 10K. Is there anything I should keep in mind, certain ways I should train, anything I should avoid doing?

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